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Every year, two women go on an adventure to celebrate their bond as mother and daughter - and as kidney donor and transplant recipient.

For 15 years, Marilyn Hendershot suffered from a rare kidney disease, proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal IgG deposits, before she went into renal failure. In 2018, she was told her health was declining quickly, and she would need a kidney transplant as soon as possible. When she told her family, her daughter, Marie Jones, sprang into action.

As a nurse practitioner, Jones had a medical background that helped guide her in her kidney donation. But her friends in the medical field were the most helpful in her decision.

“I had friends who worked in nephrology, and I saw patients all the time who only had one kidney,” she explains. “I knew that I could live a normal life with one kidney. I also knew what dialysis would entail for Mom, and I wanted her to avoid that. She was so active, so anything I could do to help her, I wanted to do so.”

The INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute care team conducted a series of tests, a process Hendershot describes as being “head to toe.” When the tests were completed, the care team found Jones to be a perfect match for Hendershot.

Finally, on Jan. 21, 2019, Hendershot received one of her daughter’s kidneys.

"It was an amazing miracle," Hendershot recalls. "I had been to the doctor a week or two before that, and he said I would need to be on dialysis, but with my transplant date as January 21st, the doctor said I would be able to slide right in without any dialysis. It was meant to be from God."

"Living donation is one of the most selfless acts a person can make," says Scott Samara, M.D., surgical director for the kidney transplant division at INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute. "What Marie did for her mother not only saved a life—it gave them both a future to keep writing their story together. Being able to perform this transplant was an honor.”

During recovery, Jones remembers the distance between her and her mother was difficult. But they tried to connect and check in with each other every day.

“I made sure that she was doing good, and she would send me her lab results to review and things like that,” Jones recalls. “If she had any questions, she would ask me during those calls.”

After recovering, both Jones and Hendershot started a new tradition: taking a hike every year around Jan. 21 to celebrate her second chance at life.

“When I was in my 20s, that was a very busy part of my life, and I didn’t have a lot of time to hang out with my mom,” Jones says. “But I think the kidney transplant has helped us connect and make that a priority that we do regularly.”

"I've always tried to be active, and my whole family loves the outdoors. My daughter is a huge hiker, camper, fisher, canoer and backpacker," Hendershot says. "My main three sports are playing pickleball, hiking and riding my mule, Diamond."

Additionally, Hendershot is grateful to be spending another Mother’s Day with family, including her three children and seven grandchildren. All in all, she is living life to the fullest. "I did take this gift of life, this second chance, and I think about it every day," Hendershot says. "I'm just extremely grateful."

Living donors like Jones are vital to patients like Hendershot as so many people in the U.S. are on the waiting list for kidney transplants. To learn more about becoming a living donor, please call 405-949-3349 or visit our website.